This Must Be Love
by Jadelioness
Summary: Hei lost everyone after the incident at Hell's Gate. Everyone but Yin. A oneshot about Hei and Yin's relationship after the end of the anime.


**Title**: _This Must Be Love_

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Darker than Black nor do I make any money from this story.

**Author's Note**: I wrote this for the 2008 Yuletide fanfic exchange and now that the names and everything are out, I thought I'd put it up here. It's my first attempt at Darker than Black, but I think it turned out rather well. It takes place after the anime.

**This Must Be Love**

_Hei, come back. Don't leave me alone!_

_A spectre's hand reached out to him, pulling him out of the dark tunnel. No not a spectre's hand, Yin's. Her cool fingers wrapped around his, pulling him out of nothingness. The darkness darker than black._

XXXXX

Hei opened his eyes, blinking at the sunlight streaming through the bare window onto his bed. He sat up slowly as the dreams faded along with the faces of all those he'd lost. All but one.

He got out of bed, stretching and yawning before pulling on a pair of pants and wandering sleepily into the little kitchen of his apartment. Yin was there, standing in front of the sink, her hands submerged in the water as she stared unseeing out the window in front of her.

It made him smile to see her.

XXXXX

The water was cool and calming around her fingers as she watched the city through the translucent vision of her spectre when Hei walked in, yawning sleepily.

"He's three blocks from the police station," she said softly. "In an empty apartment on the top floor. He moves things with his mind."

Hei nodded absently, as he wandered around the kitchen making breakfast. "Thanks, Yin."

Yin nodded slightly, withdrawing her hands from the sink and pulling the stopper out of the drain so the water could swirl down the drain in a little whirlpool.

Hei put a plate in front of her seat and sat down in his own and began to eat. Yin sat down on her side, drying her hands discreetly on the skirt of her dress and ate what Hei had made for her.

Hei always took care of her. He made sure she was happy even though she wasn't supposed to be able to know what happy was. Still, Hei wanted her to be. She was glad he had decided to come back. She thought he had made the right choice. She didn't know what she would have done if he had made a different one.

Yin sometimes wished she knew how to tell Hei these things. Tell him that she was glad he was here, with her, and that she would take care of him, just like Amber had said.

XXXXX

Hei watched her curiously as they ate. It was only the two of them now, and he hated to leave her alone. He hated to see her lonely. Before, Huang or Mao was always there if he couldn't be, but not anymore.

His thoughts of them were accompanied by the familiar stab of pain that reminded him he was still human. The pain he had sentenced himself to when he had made that choice.

"Do you want to come with me today?" he asked, suddenly, feeling a strong urge for neither of them to be alone. Yin paused, spoon half way up to her mouth.

After several seconds, she nodded. "Yes."

"Okay."

XXXXX

Hei was able to make quick work of the contractor. He was a little worried about Yin being there. He was always worried that eventually that one day would come when he couldn't save her. The day had come when he couldn't save Bai, and it would inevitably come with Yin, and it scared him more than he realized.

Luckily, today had not been that day. The contractor was no match for him, and Yin was never in danger. Kirihara's team were already arriving as he took Yin's hand and left the building, taking the back alleys through town so as not to draw attention to them.

"Are you okay?" he asked Yin.

She nodded; staring ahead as he led her through the crowded streets. Hei realized he was still gripping her hand tightly, as if she was a child prone to wandering away. He briefly thought of letting it go, but decided against it. Yin didn't seem to mind and it was nice to have the reassurance that someone was still there with him.

They wove through the people of a more populated street littered with new stands and noodle carts. Hei was careful not to pull Yin too hard, and avoid the other people with ease.

Yin stopped abruptly next to a noodle cart, making Hei stop as well.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concern filling his eyes.

"The noodle cart," she said softly, turning towards it and sitting on one of the empty stools. Hei followed, taking the stool next to her. He looked sideways at her blank face and felt his heart fill with affection.

"Two bowls, please," he said to the owner.

XXXXX

Several minutes later, Yin finished her bowl while Hei put his twenty-third on top of the stack next to him.

"Thank you!" he said cheerfully to the stunned looking owner and stuck his hands in his pockets as he followed Yin down the street.

"Why did you stop there?" he asked curiously as they took a shortcut down an alley.

"I thought you would be hungry," Yin replied. Hei cocked his head, studying her emotionless face.

"That was...thoughtful," he said, realizing not for the first time how she had changed since the beginning. And since the Gate.

"She told me to take care of you," Yin said, surprising him.

Hei stopped, his face hardening a little. "Who?"

"Amber."

_Amber_.

Despite the nightmares and his new life and his thoughts constantly straying to _that_ _night_, just as it had strayed to _that_ _night_ before it, he and Yin never mentioned anything having to do with what happened in the Gate. For the first time since he made his choice, he wondered if what happened in Hell's Gate had affected her as much as it did him.

An emotionless doll. That's what she was supposed to be. Hei had always known that was wrong, but he was only just coming to the conclusion of how wrong. He could sometimes read her feelings through her vacant words and her seemingly normal actions.

She felt just as much as he did. Perhaps she had made a choice too.

"Thanks, Yin," he said softly, threading his fingers through hers and pressing his lips softly to her mouth in a chaste kiss.

XXXXX

It was a full moon tonight. Yin stood in front of the big window, staring at the sun setting behind the buildings of Tokyo. Hei watched her from the doorway, smiling to himself.

When they had rented the apartment, Hei went around to every room and took down all the curtains. Yin knew he woke up early every morning because his room was so bright. She knew he didn't like that others could see through their big bare windows into their lives. But most importantly, she knew he did it for her.

Yin was still unsure of what her emotions were. Sometimes she felt things and she didn't know what to call them. Even worse was when others talked of them. Things like love, hate, anger, sadness, hope, all those emotions that everyone took for granted but Yin didn't know what they meant. How do you feel if you want to tell someone you love them? What does it mean when your heart clenches at the thought of never seeing that person again?

Yin wasn't sure of any of those things. But she did know that if you gave up things you liked in order to make someone else happy, that was important and that must be something like love.

The moon rose in the sky, bright and bold, washing the apartment in its silver glow. Yin walked out to the tiny balcony connected to their apartment, arms raised and face turned towards that brilliant light.

The world lit up for her and Yin immediately knew that this was happiness.

XXXXX

Hei can't help the smile nor the soft noise he makes at the sight of her. He can tell she's happy and the very fact that he can see that makes him happy.

She stands there for a long time and he watches silently. There is a comfort between them that is contented and natural, and Hei realizes he has never felt as at ease with anyone else. Not even with Bai. Even though he had desperately loved his sister, their relationship was a deception on her part. He never quite understood her as well as she did him.

But with Yin, things were simple. There was that unmentioned need for each other that they both felt but neither had to say.

XXXXX

Hei shuddered, a cold sweat breaking out over his body as Bai's blood splattered face tinted green from the radar screen echoed in his mind. It was rapidly followed by his memory of her in the golden light inside that strange dream of Hell's Gate. She was reaching out to him, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't reach her. She was smiling at him as his fingers fell just short of hers. He couldn't reach her, couldn't reach any of them, and he was drifting into the void.

Then cool finger threaded through his and he held on tightly. The hand squeezed back reassuringly, and he suddenly felt calm and safe.

Hei's eyes fluttered open to see Yin sitting quietly next to him, grasping his hand firmly.

"Yin," he said in a choked voice that betrayed his inner turmoil for the first time since that night.

She turned to look at him, and he hugged her tightly, tension leaving him as her small arms wrapped around him too. "Thank you," he whispered.

She was there once again to pull him out of the darkness, to bring him back, to save him. And he loved her for it.

XXXXX

When Hei woke up the next morning, Yin was standing in front of the mirror, a finger at each corner of her mouth, pushing it up into a smile.

Hei laughed softly at the sight and went to the kitchen to make them breakfast. Yin let her hands drop and followed, filling the sink with water and immersing her hands once it was half full.

Hei set their plates down on the table, piling the dirty dishes next to the sink.

"Kirihara is looking for BK201. She is at the building where the last contractor was apprehended," Yin told him, just like every morning.

Hei smiled, pulling Yin's hand out of the water and brushing his lips over the top of her hand.

"Thank you," he said softly and kissed her. His lips were warm and inviting, expressing all the things neither of them needed to say.

When he pulled away, he sat down at the table and began eating like he hadn't seen food in weeks. Yin sat down in her seat and took careful bites, her mind lingering on the way she had felt a moment ago when Hei had kissed her.

It was unlike anything she had experienced before, so much stronger than anything she had ever felt. There was the familiar ache in her heart, though much pleasanter now as it beat a bit faster.

"Come with me today?" Hei asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Yes," Yin replied, her face still holding its same blank expression, but inside, she was smiling.

_This_, Yin decided, _must be love. _


End file.
